So I stumble upon blogs I like from time to time and put them in my pocket. So instead of just holding on to them myself, I am going to start sharing them here.
Today while looking up the word "solastalgia" after hearing it on NPR, I found The Penultimate Word.
The Penultimate Word is a linguist dream. I love the word "penultimate." A teacher whom I still have bad feelings toward introduced it to us in high school. It is a perfect example of why a strong vocabulary makes you better at speaking, writing, communicating. When one word can replace "the one before the last," how can you not joyously add it to your vocab?
Jed Waverly takes this excitiment from finding new and interesting words and blogs about them. I first ventured into the blog with , Solastalgia. Instead of taking a dictionary approach to the word, Waverly explains what the actual ailment would feel like, showing a definition rather than telling it.
We get a discussion of Palindromes not for their "racecar" antics but about the actual etymology of the word. A post about The Mythical Dad becomes a personal essay about his realtionship with his father.
Perhaps my favorite (that I've found so far) is an indepth look at the word that is 100% new to me: Jeremiad.
Waverly talks about topical issues and the etymological roots with Cinco de Mayo in Arizona, Oil Spill and Blockade. All offering insight different from a "normal" word-of-the-day type blog.
Creating a mix between the academic and the artistic, between the word nerd and the nerd who uses said words, The Penultimate Word sparkles as an example of what words can really do if we let them. They do not always have to just tell the stories, they can be the stories themselves. Explore it. It is a great time.
Read on.
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